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Help:Contents
For a wonderful tutorial, look no further than http://www.wikicities.com/wiki/Help:Tutorial_1 category:Help You're a part of the wiki! When you first see a wiki, it doesn't seem like it could possibly work. If anybody can come along and change things, then how can the information be trusted? Doesn't it just get vandalized, or fall into chaos? Once you start participating, you see that that "weakness" is actually a wiki's greatest strength. Sure, anybody can add anything -- and then everybody else gets to proofread it, and fix mistakes. Information that looks suspicious can be verified. Vandalism is almost always fixed within minutes. It's possible for someone to post errors, or nonsense -- but over time, the best wins out. If you're reading these words, then you're a wiki editor. If you see a problem on one of the pages, don't roll your eyes and complain about it. Just fix it! 611832659234831613692851 29312485048529099551617 Create a user name ' ' and create a user name -- it'll help you (and everybody) keep track of your contributions. It's possible to post anonymously on this wiki, but be advised that anonymous posters are treated more skeptically. If we can see the pages you've added to, then we'll be more impressed with you, and more likely to trust. You're also invited to post your name on your user page -- either your full name, or just a first name and an initial. It's not required, but it helps everyone get to know you and trust you. Show your sources Other readers should be able to verify the information that you post. Cite episode numbers wherever possible, and give sources for quotes. If you find information in a book or on a website, tell us the title or the URL. If it's clumsy to put that information in the article, then add a "References" heading at the bottom of the page. Behind the scenes information is especially important to source; we don't want to spread unfounded rumors. Active Talk Pages When you post a question on an article's talk page, you can list it in Active Talk Pages by adding a talk box. Just add this template to the top of the article page: -- that'll automatically add a box pointing people to your question, and it'll list you on the Active Talk Pages. You can browse through that list to find other ongoing discussions. History tab Nothing is ever lost on a wiki! You can see all of the changes that have been made to a page -- and who made them -- by clicking on the "History" tab at the top of any page. Signing talk posts When you post on a talk page, put an asterisk (*) at the front of your post to make a bullet. Sign talk posts with four tildes -- ~~~~ -- to automatically add your user name and a date stamp. Link sanity Only link a name the first time it's used on a page. Please don't link every single capitalized word -- it makes the page confusing and messy. Uploading and formatting pictures Click on "Upload file" on the left navigation bar to upload pictures. You can add your image to any page using this code: : Images should not exceed 300 pixels wide for article tidyness and copyright adherence. Categories You can put an article into a category by adding this code: Category:YourCategory . You can change the way the article is alphabetized within the category like this: Great Radish Race, The. Before you create a category, check the to see if there's a similar category that already exists. If the category doesn't exist yet, then adding that code will create the category. Be sure to add some text to the new Category page, or the link from your new article won't work properly. External links You can add links to other websites by putting one bracket around the site's address, like this: http://www.google.com. That'll look like this: http://www.google.com You can add a description to the link by adding a space before the description, like this: Google website. That comes out like this: Google website No shopping links Please don't add links to Amazon or other commercial sites. It's nice to help other users of this wiki to find the cool products that are available, but we don't want to look like we're trying to sell things. We also don't want to open the possibility to people posting sponsored Amazon links, or links to their own Ebay store. If a product is currently in print and available, you can note that in the article. If that inspires a reader to buy the product, then they can find it on Amazon. Setting your preferences There's a lot of useful stuff on your . You can change your display so that links show up as blue or red words, without the underlining. You can also change your time zone, and the number of items you see on the Recent Changes page or the Category list. Keyboard shortcuts There's some helpful keyboard shortcuts to navigate around within a page. Dealing with vandalism Vandalism isn't much of a problem on a wiki, because everybody has the power to fix it when they see it. Contact administrators See for a list of admins on any wiki. If you have questions or comments about the wiki, you can leave a message on an admin's talk page. Check the for more information on contributing to this wiki! :The first revision of this page was written by User:Toughpigs from the Muppet Wikicity. Can I REALLY just edit ANYTHING? * Yep. You can edit just about anything (including this page) * You can't edit "special" pages, such as the upload page and a few others. Who owns this WikiCity? User:Erichv (of 4th Dimension Club, 3008-74 in South Africa) started this WikiCity. But he doesn't own it. You do. Treat it as if you own it. Add to it, tinker with it. You wouldn't vandalise it if you owned it, would you? And if somebody else vandalised it, you'd fix it, right? Who controls the edits? Again, you do. Anybody can roll back to the previous edit. So if somebody's vandalised the site, just roll it back. No biggie. Are there really no rules? Of course there are rules. Here are four: * 1. Be sensible * 2. Be accurate. Especially, try to make sure you're not duplicating information. Try to use the existing links. * 3. Be impartial. Every page has an associated Talk page (which anybody can edit). If you disagree with somebody, then the correct response is to move that disagreement to the Talk page. Each page should contain information that everybody can agree with. If you don't agree, take the disagreement to the Talk page, or note on the main page that "some authorities disagree." * 4. Be nice. These four should be enough for us until well into 2007. In the main wikicity's' FAQ, there's a specific mention of rules which Erich consulted before setting up this wikicity. That FAQ guards against too many rules. It says: "There's often somebody who thinks: "This would work MUCH better if everybody just did X, Y, Z". This is usually a bad idea. Following the rules becomes so onerous, nobody posts to the WikiCity any more. Let's not let that happen, OK? Let's just keep it open. What if the information is just plain wrong? Have you thought that maybe it isn't wrong? Maybe YOU're wrong? I'm just raising it as a possibility. I mean, would YOU just upload wrong stuff? Of COURSE not. The person who took the trouble to write the page probably tried to get it right. If it's wrong, correct it. If there's a disagreement about what's right, then talk about it on that page's "Talk" page. (each page has a "discussion" tab at the top -- that tab is to discuss the content of each page. You can leave messages there for other contributors.) Doesn't this WikiCity compete with www.toastmasters-sa.org http://www.toastmasters-sa.org.za and others? I don't know. Does it? I can't help thinking that those sites are updated by one person, infrequently. This site can be updated by many people, frequently. So I think this site doesn't compete. In fact many districts are now linking to this Wikicity as an excellent resource for their members. For a more detailed response, see here FAQ How do I edit stuff? Click on Edit. Type. Click on Save Page. More help? Click on "Editing help" at the bottom of the page. Or Here: http://toastmasters.wikicities.com/wiki/Help:Editing. I must warn you, though, that nobody's written that page yet. So why don't you have a go at it? How do I link to other Wiki pages? You make a link by enclosing the words you want to make clickable in two square brackets. [ [ this is clickable ] ] That was just a demonstration. To make them clickable really, put the square brackets together. Edit a page with a link and see how it's done. How do I activate the link? It activates automatically. Click on it, and it takes you to a blank page and invites you to edit it. How do I link to other sites? You link to other sites by putting the full site address (starting with http:/ /) in single square brackets []. Can I upload pictures? Yes, of course. Go to the Special Upload site on the left hand side. Click it and see. What if somebody vandalises the site? You can "watch" certain Wiki pages. You then get alerted when those pages are changed. If a vandal changes the site, you'll be alerted that the page has changed. You have the option to"Roll Back" the edit to the previous version. There on-line version control so you can see what each version said. In the Wikipedia, thousands of people watch sensitive sites like Microsoft and Al-Qaeda. A study found that vandalism was detected and repaired in most cases in less than 3 minutes! Try doing that with centralised control! More help Click "Editing help" at the bottom of this page. Also check out: http://www.wikicities.com/wiki/Help:Tutorial Check out other wikis! There are some wonderful things happening at the other wikicities. here's an example of a copy of the main page of http://babysigns.wikicities.com. Have a look at how she's done it, and take your inspiration from it!